Monday, March 8, 2021

Michigan Monday: Pain and Problems

Its very rare to win a Big Ten Championship during the week and have a bad week on the court.   Michigan went 1-3 during the week and look much different then the team that took the floor against Ohio State two weeks ago.  

Michigan took its team to East Lansing last night and lost to a really bad Spartans team.  Yes, Sparty has been playing well at home lately and has wins over Illinois and Ohio State in the last couple of weeks, but still Michigan should've won a laugher if they had showed up at all.  

To add insult to injury, Michigan lost senior guard Brooks early in the first half to an ankle injury and Franz Wagner was seen limping off the court at the end of the game.   Franz who was in the twilight zone for most of the game, played better at the end but still seems to be in a weird slump.  

Juwan had a couple of different options on Sunday, he could of rested his starters and basically given Sparty a much needed win but he decided to play his starters and still lost.   Since it is a rivalry game, I lean more towards playing his guys, but today maybe sitting them would've been a better decision with playing so many games in a week.   I hope Brooks ankle isn't too bad, either way he is probably out for the Big Ten Tournament and hopefully will be back for the NCAA.   Michigan looked tired and un-interested in playing last night. 

What's the problem right now?

  • Michigan on offense is not moving the ball and stuck in too much pick and roll.   Hunter is getting double teamed and the pass to the interior is getting picked or Hunter is forced into a bad shots. 
  • You can't run the same offense when Davis comes into game.  He isn't close to Hunter's skill set and this offense really struggles when they force the ball into Austin. 
  • I mentioned ball movement and Brooks is a huge part of that.  Juwan put in Zeb Jackson who really hasn't seen real minutes during the Big Ten.   He looked comfortable and played pretty well.  If Brooks is out, Zeb is going to get more minutes.
  • Livers is not a low post player.  Livers is passing up open 3's for dribble drives to the basket.  I would like to see him shoot over the high pick more.  Livers can't score 9 points a game and think Michigan is going to win any games moving forward with that type of effort.  
  • Wagner is in a funk.  He was turning the ball all over the place and wasn't a presence on the court for most of the game.  
  • Illinois put the formula on tape.   Teams are going to watch that tape and try to do what they did to stop the Wolverines.  
  • The Bench is struggling.  Johns has lost all confidence, Davis plays hard but isn't Dickinson, Brown played ok last night but has also been struggling being effective.  Williams and Jackson has only been getting minutes at the end of a blowout.   

Illinois saying they should be co-Big Ten Champions is laughable, what isn't funny is they're playing the best basketball in the Big Ten right now.   Michigan needs to get healthy and fix a number of issues before next weekend.  

BTW: Michigan could be playing MSU for the 3rd time in a row if Sparty beats Maryland in Indy.   


4 comments:

Rudy said...

Can't really blame Illini for wanting to call themselves champ right? Cmon, other than Tom Cruise in Risky Business, nobody brags about going to that school. It's a stink hole. They can't win jack crap so as soon as they get close, just go ahead and say "hey, 2nd is the new 1st". I get it.

MichiganMan said...

Michigan is garbage. They will get knocked out in the first round...overrated.

Unknown said...

MichiganMan.....aren't you the guy who hates Harbaugh and think Bo was bad?
You're a troll.
Get a life and comment on your teams websites.

MichiganMan said...

Both of them never want a championship what are you talking about